You're Free, Here (Freedom AU Book 12)

Prologue

  Just another night at Freddy Fazbear's pizza, with one of the more loyal minimum wage night guards making it to the restaurant with a few minutes to spare. While any other guard would enter through the backway, Sophie Grant came in by the front entrance—as per usual. From there, she easily made her way past every show stage on her way to the security office, quietly announcing her presence.

Tonight was no different. Sophie went off to the office, hiking a bookbag up on her shoulder. It had a few more treasures inside, some of which she was excited to share with her friends once they woke up. But for the moment, she saw them all sleeping on their feet, so she wouldn't disturb them.

Sophie continued on into the security office just quietly enough to not disturb anyone's sleep, but loud enough to alert her presence. She set her bag on the floor beside the office chair, before sitting down. She checked the clock on the desk. Five minutes to midnight.

She went about her routine of taking some things out of her bag, such as her water bottle, flashlight, laptop, and charger. Thankfully, Sophie didn't need to use her personal laptop as there was already a provided tablet for the building's camera systems. Not that she used the cameras, anyways. For now, Sophie simply plugged in her laptop to charge, before taking a drink of water.

Reaching back into her bag, she took out a good pile of books. All books she'd gotten from her local used bookstore. Having mentioned to the store owner how she was buying these books for her friends who needed them, the old lady drew a small smiley face on the inner top corner of the very first page for each of the books. Something small and sweet, which Sophie was thankful for.

Putting the books down on the remaining space of the desk, Sophie then went about splitting the pile up in order of subjects. Some of the books were on different things, either humble-sized textbooks, or intriguing fiction stories. She'd even scored a couple kids books in the process.

Looking at said kids books, Sophie paused. "The twins can read, right...?" She quietly sighed. "Well, they can learn... I guess." She shook her head a little. Then, she heard small footsteps coming up to one of the office doors. Next came a gentle knocking on the doorframe. Sophie turned to see JJ standing there, a small smile on her face. "Oh, hey there, JJ!"

"Hi, Miss Sophie." JJ greeted in return. Sophie waved her over. "You wanna see what I brought?" The girl nodded, as she went to stand next to Sophie's chair. She looked at what all was on the desk. "Oh, some books!" Sophie smiled. "Yep, I've gotten some more. And check this out," Sophie picked up a book and opened the cover. She pointed out the little smiley face in the top corner. "The lady who owns the shop even doodled little smileys inside the books for you guys."

"Cool!" JJ hummed. "Well anyways, I got a couple more books for Bon, and then some for Toy and Bonnie to read. And, there's also these ones." Sophie brought JJ's attention to the kids books. The few that were there varied in length, some being short tales and one an easy level novel.

"Do any of these look interesting?" Picking up the more colourful books one by one, JJ looked at them carefully. Sophie noticed how she seemed to be looking more at the artwork both on the cover and inside the pages, than the book titles. "I think these are interesting," JJ answered, before looking up at Sophie. "I don't really know how to read, though... But, BB can read them with me!"

"Ah, gotcha," Sophie's smile faltered slightly. "Your brother can read, then?" JJ nodded. "Nice. I'll let you bring these ones back to him, how's that?" Her smile widening, JJ happily took the books in her arms. "Thank you!" She said to Sophie, before hurrying off to find her twin brother again.

Sophie sighed. She turned her chair to face the desk again, noting the time as past midnight. She opted to stay in the office a little while more before leaving to see if anybody was awake. Mindlessly, Sophie set the remaining books in a bit more of an organized manner, and even dusted the covers off a bit more than she had already.

"Hey, Sophie-" She nearly jolted from her seat. Bon was at her office door, already looking apologetic for having scared her. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Laughing a little, Sophie shook her head. "It's fine, Bon." She told him.

"Um, I saw the twins had new books, so I was wondering if you maybe...?" The bunny trailed off when he saw Sophie nod. She picked up two books, then got up to hand them to him. Bon took them with a smile. "Thank you." Sophie shrugged. "Don't mention it." After Bon left the office, Sophie figured she may as well, too.

Making her way down the hallway and into the main dining area, Sophie saw the trio star attractions stepping down from the stage. Freddy gave her a wave from across the room, which she gladly returned. "Good morning, Sophie." He greeted. "Good morning, guys. How'd everyone sleep?" She wondered. There were a few shrugs, before from Pirate's Cove nearby, Foxy chimed in with, "I can't speak fer me mates, but I slept 'bout as sound as pup."

"Same here." Bonnie agreed with a yawn. Sophie smirked. "Glad to hear." She told them. Then, she looked over to the bunny. "I brought a couple new books for you and Toy, Bonnie." She told him. "Hey, thanks! Which reminds me," Bonnie snapped his fingers. "I have to fix our little bookshelf." Sophie blinked. "Oh? What happened to it?"

"Weight of the books snapped one of the boards... I, er, think there's more pallets I can use to replace it." Sophie hummed. "Huh, sorry about that... Um, that bookshelf isn't running out of space, is it?" Bonnie half shrugged, chuckling somewhat nervously. "Dangit... Well, then you're gonna need more than one board I guess." Bonnie shook his head. "It's fine for now. I'll just fix the one board and we'll be good for a bit, still."

"You sure?"

"Positive." Sophie shrugged. "Okay, if you say so," She replied. "I'll keep the new books in the office while you do that." Bonnie gave her a thumbs up, before heading off for the basement. "Ooh! New books?" Toy asked, having caught the tail end of the conversation on her way to the main area. "Yep, I think you'll like them." She smiled. "Thanks, really!"

"Don't mention it." Sophie said. "You can go check them out, they're on the office desk." She told her. Looking excited, Toy turned around and went back down the hallway. Sophie, though, went over to talk to Freddy.

"So, anything to report?" She asked him, keeping a hand in her pocket with her phone—reading to take it out for any possible notes. "Well, everyone's doing good right now," Freddy began. "There isn't really anything, not that I can think of right now." He simply said. "Cool. What about baby supplies?"

"The current stock's fine, and Plushy is doing good, too." Freddy answered. "Good. How about food? I thought I heard something about changes with the stuff left in the fridge and freezer during closing hours." Freddy hummed, thinking for a minute.

Having heard the mention of the kitchen's food supply, Chica joined the conversation. "As of yesterday, there's been no problems with food." She reported gladly. Sophie gave her a nod. "Good. But if anything does change, let me know and I'll make sure it's handled." She said. Both the chicken, and her cupcake companion smiled. "Thank you, Sophie."

"You know we really appreciate the stuff you do, right?" Sophie lightly waved Freddy off, more being humble than anything. "Like I said, don't mention it! I made a promise to all of you, didn't I?" The bear chuckled, teasingly bumping her shoulder. "Sure you did, but you really didn't have to." Sophie shrugged. "Hey, if I wasn't going to, then who would?"

"I wouldn't trust no other landlubber t'a look out fer us th' way ye do, lassie." Foxy commented, giving her a wink in appreciation when she looked in his direction. "Thanks." Sophie then shook her head, and took out her phone to write something down.

"Alright, that's all for the flattery! I've got some things I should go check tonight." Freddy nodded. "Okay, okay, we'll leave you alone." Sophie was quietly laughing while she left the room, heading off towards her boss's office.

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A.N. Oookay didn't mean for this chapter to be so long, ngl, but imma brush it off since it's just the prologue heh

So yeah, this'll be the new weekend book! See y'all next weekend!